Period 39: At Emily-chan's Home
'At Emily-chan's Home '''is the 39th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 3rd chapter in the volume 10 manga. Premise ''Noelle has an old doll named Emily, who is said to grant good fortune to those who play with her. But after she invites a few classmates over for a Christmas Party, strange things begin to happen. '' Yomi's Introduction While standing in observation of the snow surrounding her, Yomi brings up with that a Christmas party will be held soon. She giggles when asked where. Summary Yukio is devastated when her parents inform her that they will be working over time on December 24th. She reminds the of their promises for presents, a party, and homemade cake- but it can't be helped. Her mother offers to get her presents when she has vacation again but this does nothing to make her feel better when she points out the same thing happened the prior year. She angrily fumes until her mother scolds her. The following day at school, Yukio sadly complains about this to her friends, who admit to knowing how she felt. The prior year they got stuck eating cake on their own with their siblings while watching television. Inspired, she suggests that they hold a Christmas Party to celebrate the holiday together, but when they are unable to determine ''where they can have it, another girl joins them and offers to have it at her place. They recognize her as Noelle, and she brings up that her mother already planned a menu as she had been giving this some thought anyway, and the girls are surprised she would approach them when they barely know her. She had just recently transferred there, but they heard she's wealthy. Noelle is delighted when they agree. Come the night of the 24th, the girls head over to the Kurusu home and are in awe over the splendor of a rich home. Yukio is a bit disappointed as her own home isn't even decorated for the holiday, but she doesn't linger on it long, amazed by Noelle's beautiful mother as she greets them at the door. As they look around, one of her friends observes a door- but Noelle quickly stops her from entering it and hurriedly claims it's a storage room before showing them to her living room. Suspicious over her sudden alarm, Yukio observes the door before taking off. As everyone finishes dinner, Yukio heads off to use the restroom. But while washing her hands she notices Noelle standing before the "storage room" and quietly follows after her whe she heads inside. She is about to speak to her when she hears Noelle greet someone by the name of Emily. She is stunned to see that Emily is an old rag doll as Noelle promises to return the next day as well. But before she can leave, her friends yelling alerts Noelle to her presence. Noelle quickly attempts to hide Emily from the girls and suggests they play games and they return to the living room, and everyone agrees. Yukio remains awkward however, and soon Noelle's father arrives home. Watching the family interact so lovingly, Yukio begins to feel saddened and excuses herself to the restroom again. But as she shuts the living room door, she is startled to find Emily on the floor. She leans down to rub her, remarking on how dirty she is before bringing up how envious she is of Noelle. She wishes her own family was like hers. Soon, the girls turn in the for night. Yukio awakens momentarily as she hears sound coming nearby. But unable to identify it, she goes back to sleep. The following morning Yukio is surprised when she finds out Midori and Seiko have left already. She can't understand why her friends would leave so suddenly without saying anything, and Noelle explains how they mentioned that something came up. She didn't want them to wake her up so early, so she told them that she would let Yukio know when she got up. With that Noelle's mother suggests that Yukio washes her face before breakfast. Confused, Yukio heads to their restroom and does as suggested- however, she remains suspicious and checks her phone to find that she doesn't have any messages. She dials one of her friends numbers when she hears her ringtone coming from the storage room. She is surprised when the door opens, assuming it would have been locked like before, and steps inside. Alarmed, Yukio observes several scratches she hadn't noticed before, and observes the lock while wondering what could have possibly wanted out that badly to do that. As she hears the ringtone get louder, she walks through the room and calls for her friends until suddenly kicking something. Horrified, Yukio finds a corpse hidden beneath a sheet with blood and one of her friends cellphones and falls back as Noelle joins her. Yukio is startled by how calm Noelle is, and Noelle mentions how Emily has gone missing after her friends paid a visit to this room earlier. She goes on to mention how silly it must be for her to still play with dolls, but she was so lonely as a child; until she met Emily at a market. Her parents used to be so busy, but because of Emily she was happy, and somehow, the more she played with her, the better things became for them. They slowly became rich after things went well with her dads company, to the point her mother was able to quit working, and her dad always came home early because he didn't need to work as much. She's really happy with how things are, and she smiles as her parents approach before claiming that she warned Yukio and her friends to stay away from this room. Their snooping caused Emily to discover them however, and unfortunately, Emily is very easily jealous. Her parents exchange a small laugh and mention how troublesome Noelle's previous friends had been as a result of their own nosiness. Despite how hard they tried, this still happened. As Yukio recalls the strange occurrences within the past few hours, Yukio wonders if it's really possible a doll could really do these things. Noelle remarks on how sad it is though; she had finally thought she made some good friends. Suddenly, the door creaks open and Emily walks in holding a large kitchen knife. Noelle happily calls out to her and points out that Yukio is still here as Yukio cries, thinking about how she just wanted to have a nice Christmas for once. She didn't want anything grand- she just wanted to be with her family. Much to the Kurusu families shock, they are alarmed when Emily turns the knife towards them instead. Noelle calls out to her, wondering why she's angry as Yukio recalls her earlier statement, when Noelle said she really doesn't need to play with dolls anymore. Yukio eagerly takes this chance to make her escape when Emily attacks Noelle and her parents. Yukio runs as quickly as she can back for home. But upon arrival she finds a note has been left by her mother, explaining how she was called in early. While relieved, Yukio is unable to stop the tears as she laments always being alone. But to her horror, she looks up to find Emily sitting before her on the table, offering her hand to Yukio. She weeps as she recalls what Noelle said and slowly reaches for Emily's hand. Months have passed since then, and two women are discussing how prosperous Yukio's home has been and wonder if the husband got a promotion. The other woman mentions how the mother was a housewife who baked cakes all the time. However, the daughter has gone missing and nobody knows what happened; she went to a friends house and vanished- just like that. As they wonder where she may have been taken, Yukio is shown laying with Emily on a couch together as a corpse lays before them. Yomi's Epilogue Yomi wonders how long Emily and Yukio's happiness will last. She then asks what the Reader thinks of the doll and remarks on the persons own Christmas and whether it will be lonely or not, saying that if they feel courageous she wouldn't mind sending them a present- revealing Emily to be sitting in a box. Characters *Noelle Kurusu *Mr. and Mrs. Kurusu *Yukio Shimoda *Mr. and Mrs. Shimoda *Emily *Seiko & Midori Quotes Trivia Gallery Category:Manga Category:Chapters Category:Vol 10